New Yorkers approved five of the six ballot proposals that came before Big Apple voters on Tuesday, including a measure to enshrine abortion rights in the State Constitution and changes to the City Charter that could give the mayor a bigger hand in the City Council’s lawmaking process.
Empire State voters passed Proposition 1 — also known as the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) — by a 22% vote margin, with 57% voting in favor of the measure, 35% voting against it and another 8% leaving it blank.
In addition to formally protecting abortion rights in New York, the ERA will add explicit protections against government discrimination to the State Constitution for several other vulnerable groups as well. Those include an individual’s ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender, and pregnancy status.
The proposal, which state lawmakers advanced through two legislative sessions following the US Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe vs. Wade, overcame a last-minute but hard-charging effort among state Republicans to derail it.
“We’re in a moment when 21 states have banned abortion. Birth control, IVF, and LGBTQ+ rights are under attack. With the passage of Prop 1, New York now has some of the strongest protections in the country to ensure the safety and freedom of all New Yorkers,” Sasha Ahuja, campaign director of New Yorkers for Equal Rights, said in a statement. “This team overcame a last-minute, multi-million dollar smear campaign from out-of-state, anti-abortion billionaires bent on scaring and dividing voters. But as we well know, New Yorkers aren’t easily fooled. In every corner of the state, voters showed up at the polls to protect their rights, and the rights of generations of New Yorkers to come.”
The Coalition to Protect Kids, the group leading the charge against the ERA, released a statement repeating false claims that it would allow men to participate in girls’ sports and take away parents’ right to consent to the children seeking gender-affirming surgery or hormones.
“This was always an uphill fight,” Ayesha Kreutz, the group’s spokesperson, said in a statement. “Governor Hochul and her colleagues stacked the deck with unfair ballot language, yet our warnings resonated with countless New Yorkers. Prop 1 will almost certainly end girls-only sports in this state, and it will significantly impinge on parental authority and religious freedoms. We urge New Yorkers to remember who’s responsible for it.”
City prop wins for mayor
Within the five boroughs, Mayor Eric Adams notched a major win as city residents approved four of the five ballot proposals advanced by a City Charter Revision Commission that he called earlier this year. Adams originally called the commission to block the council from getting its own legislation to subject more mayoral appointments to council approval on the ballot.
Adams, in a Tuesday night statement, claimed the measures’ passing reflected the will of “working-class New Yorkers.”
“I’m grateful to the commissioners and staff who heard the voices of their fellow New Yorkers, and whose outstanding efforts will now likely be enshrined into our city’s charter through Propositions 2-5,” Adams said. “Tonight’s overwhelming success at the polls is just the latest example of how our administration is working every single day to make this a safer, more affordable city for all New Yorkers.”
The five proposals passed with solid majorities between 55% and 60%. Proposals 3 and 4 in particular would give City Hall a greater hand in the council’s lawmaking process.
While the council and advocates attempted to sway voters away from approving the mayor’s proposals, those efforts appear to have not reached or convinced enough New Yorkers to reject them.
Proposal 3 mandates that the council produce a cost estimate for a bill twice, instead of once, before voting on it and allows the mayor’s budget office to produce its own cost assessments for legislation at both points of the process. Proposition 4 requires the council to provide 30 days of public notice prior to voting on legislation affecting the city’s public safety agencies, which include the NYPD, Fire Department, and Department of Correction.
It would also give the mayor and the affected agency the power to hold their own public hearings on the bills.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said it is “unfortunate that Mayor Adams’ commission advanced anti-democratic proposals and inaccurately worded questions onto the ballot to mislead New Yorkers.”
“Tonight demonstrates the dire need for better safeguards to ensure city ballot proposals are accurately presented to voters. There is serious work needed to protect our local democracy from a mayor willing to disregard norms in the pursuit of power that removes checks and balances,” she added.
The other two proposals that passed—Propositions 2 and 5—would expand the Sanitation Department’s authority over city-owned property, including parks and highway medians, and institute reforms to the city’s process for planning large infrastructure updates.
The only measure that did not pass was Proposition 6, which would have made a few unrelated changes. Those included formalizing the role of Chief Business Diversity Officer, who oversees City Hall’s Minority and Women-Owned Businesses program, and giving the mayor authority to allow employees of their office of Media and Entertainment to issue filming permits.
Lastly, it would have consolidated two separate boards that handle city archives.
